Kast appoints María Paz Ríos Lama as Undersecretary of Sport

The President of the Republic, José Antonio Kast Rist, appointed María Paz Ríos Lama to the position of Undersecretary of Sports, effective as of August 28, 2026. The appointment was formalized through decree NC-00032/2026 of the Ministry of Sports, published this Monday, October 26, 2026, in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Chile (No. 44,583, Section I, pp. 1-2, official reference CVE 2887340).

The content of the decree

The decree, signed in Santiago on August 28, 2026, provides for the appointment of María Paz Ríos Lama, identity card number 17,895,625-6, to the position of Undersecretary of Sports, grade C of the EUS of the Government Authorities Scale. The text adds that the authority “for urgent reasons of good service, must assume her functions without waiting for the full processing of this decree.”

The regulation also orders the expenditure incurred by the appointment to be charged to Subtitle 21, “Personnel Expenses,” of the ministry’s current budget. The decree bears the signatures of José Antonio Kast Rist as President of the Republic and Francisco Riveros Cantuarias as Minister of Sports, and was transcribed by María Paz García Martínez, Acting Undersecretary of Sports.

The invoked legal framework

The administrative act is based on a set of regulations listed in the decree itself:

Article 32 No. 7 of the Political Constitution of the Republic, established in Supreme Decree No. 100 of 2005, from the Ministry General Secretariat of the Presidency.
Law No. 20,686, which creates the Ministry of Sports.
Decree with the force of law No. 1 of 2013, from the Ministry General Secretariat of the Government, which establishes the Personnel Plant of the ministry.
Supreme Decree No. 66 of 2018, from the Ministry of Sports, which approves its current Organic Regulation.
Supreme Decree No. 131 of August 14, 2026, from the Ministry of the Interior, which appoints the Minister of Sports.
Resolution No. 36 of 2024, from the Comptroller General of the Republic, regarding the exemption from the toma de razón (legal review) process.

In its recitals, the decree recalls that Article 24 of Decree with the force of law No. 1-19,653 of 2000 establishes that undersecretaries are immediate collaborators of the ministers and are responsible for coordinating the action of the public bodies and services of the sector, acting as certifying officers, and exercising internal administration. It adds that Article 4 of Supreme Decree No. 66 of 2018 defines the Undersecretary of Sports as the superior head of the service and immediate collaborator of the minister, and that Article 40 of the same legal body provides that undersecretaries are of the exclusive trust of the President of the Republic.

The succession in the position

The appointment closes a turnover in the ministry’s second-highest leadership position. Andrés Otero Klein, identity card number 14.045.086-3, had been appointed Undersecretary of Sport by supreme decree No. 6, dated March 11, 2026, of the Ministry of Sport. His voluntary resignation was accepted, effective from August 14, 2026, by decree NC-00031, published in the Official Gazette No. 44.557 on Thursday, September 24, 2026 (CVE 2872429).

On that same day, August 14, 2026, Francisco Leonel Riveros Cantuarias assumed leadership of the ministry, appointed Minister of Sport by supreme decree No. 131 of the Ministry of the Interior, published in the Official Gazette No. 44.555 on Tuesday, September 22, 2026 (CVE 2870331). In subsequent publications of the bulletin from late September 2026, the decrees of the Ministry of Sport appear signed by Natalia Duco Soler as Minister of Sport and countersigned by María Paz Ríos Lama as Undersecretary of Sport.

Scope of the appointment

With decree NC-00032/2026, the Undersecretariat of Sport is placed under the charge of one of the two heads of the ministry created by Law No. 20.686, the body that leads national sports policy and sports promotion and infrastructure programs. The publication in the Official Gazette provides a certain date and official publicity to an appointment that had already been in effect since late August, and clears the vacancy that had opened with the departure of Andrés Otero Klein.

Source: Official Gazette of the Republic of Chile, No. 44.583, Monday, October 26, 2026, Section I, pp. 1-2 (official reference: CVE 2887340).